You Are The Magic
You Are the Magic helps high achievers reignite their passion by tapping into the power they already possess—without adding more hustle to their plate. Hosted by Christine DeHerrera, a seasoned business coach, PR pro, and writer with over 20 years of experience, each episode blends mindset, strategy, and a dash of woo so you can create success that lights you up and makes your wildest dreams feel like your new normal.
You Are The Magic
The Power of Long Form Content: Visibility, Clients, and Creative Joy
Did you know the very thing you love to create is also the key to growing your business, attracting dream clients, and standing out as an expert? In this episode of You Are The Magic, Christine DeHerrera shares how long form content—like articles, newsletters, podcasts, and even childhood essays—became the foundation of her thriving business. From writing poems about horses as a kid to landing PR clients on national television, nearly every major opportunity in her career has stemmed from long form content. And yes, it still works—especially now.
Christine reveals how her passion for storytelling turned into visibility, credibility, and income—and how the same is possible for you. Whether you’ve got a book idea, a blog you’ve neglected, a podcast on your heart, or a newsletter waiting to come alive, this episode will inspire you to go all in on your creative work. She also shares the three biggest reasons long form content still works—and why it’s so much more fun than just chasing trends and algorithms.
If you’re ready to create a magnetic body of work that positions you as a leader and opens the door to unexpected opportunities, this episode is your invitation to begin.
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Thank you for listening and just remember, you are the magic!
I started creating long form content when I was eight years old. All the major opportunities I've had have come from my long-form content. This can happen for you too. Welcome to You Are the Magic. I'm Christine Di Herrera, and the topic of this episode is something I'm so passionate about because the synchronicities, the unexpected connections, the collaborations I couldn't have cooked up even if I tried have come from my long-form content creation. It's been so much fun, and I want this for you. So let's dive in. Picture this: a scrawny, straw-haired girl completely obsessed with horses, like over the moon, out of her mind, in love with horses, which was awesome. Except not a single person in my family was a horse person or even liked horses. This was an era when it never would have occurred to my parents to seek out a place for me to take a riding lesson, much different from today's kids who are in all the programs. So I made do with trips to the library, where I checked out literal stacks of books about horses. Couple of my big time favorite books that I read over and over and over again from the library were Pony Care and Horse Keeping on Small Acreage. We had no acres. I had no pony, but I loved them. And of course, I also loved the Black Stallion series and all the books from Marguerite Henry. Note, all those books I was reading on my twin bed in my bedroom, long form content. Of course, all I really wanted was a horse of my own. So when I discovered a kid's essay contest with the grand prize being an Arabian horse, an actual Arabian horse, right? Not a model horse, but an actual Arabian horse. Obviously, I was going to enter. This is back in the day when I was writing on paper and you sent your essay by mail and you waited for results by mail, the entire time hoping the essay wasn't lost in the mail, or that the letter announcing I was the winner of the horse wasn't lost in the mail. Now, sadly I didn't win, but the very act of writing that first essay changed the course of my life because I discovered writing is fun for me. Sitting down with a blank page and finding my idea turned out to be life-giving for me. Now, the organization that sponsored that essay contest also had a publication aimed at young horse lovers, i.e., long-form content. All of the insides of that publication were created by kids. This was a cornucopia of opportunity for a horse-loving kid who loved to write. It started with poems, stories, articles, and book reviews. All the dreams of horses and horse life constantly galloping through my brain now found their way onto the page and into an envelope. I waited for every issue of that publication with anticipation, like it was Christmas Eve. When the new issue finally arrived each month in the mailbox, and when I found my name, not once, not twice, but three or more times in some issues, it was a feeling I'd never experienced before, and I wanted more of it. I'd stumbled onto long-form content creation long before anyone strung those four words together. Later as an adult, I wrote articles for magazines, and I've never gotten over the pinch me moments when I'm able to interview an author or a business or a Grand Prix show jumper headed for the Olympics, someone I'd previously only read about or seen on the internet. I was getting paid to research, read books, and even go to horse shows or other really cool events. All the while my content was creating credibility, visibility, and some income. But that's not what I was thinking about as I worked my day job. I was just doing something I loved as a passion project, and secretly it was positioning me as an authority, an expert, and it showcased my knowledge not only of telling stories and doing interviews and writing well, but my ability to understand the media landscape, how to position subjects and build relationships. Eventually, all this long-form content led to my first PR client and then a thriving publicity and advertising firm that was built 100% from my expert status created by my content. I had clients on the Martha Stewart Show and in Woman's Day magazine. I got to plan fashion editorial spreads and travel to exciting locations. The business that started from nothing but me following my bliss generated a lot of money and opportunities beyond my wildest imaginings. My love for long-form content did not stop there. I helped my clients write newsletters, both award-winning hard-copy newsletters and digital newsletters starting as far back as 2005. I helped my clients build their audience, sell their products and services, and develop brand collaborations. I even wrote articles for clients, including one that was a top 10 most read article in 2021, the year after it was published. Long form content has legs. The ripple effect never ceases to amaze me. The collaborations, the growth of a message that becomes a movement, the ability to be seen. As a writer and storyteller myself, I continued my own creativity. I wrote a book, Fashion Fetish, which by the way is coming back next year, and won awards for my young adult fiction. Earlier this year, I started this very podcast. I've gotten clients from it and added people to my newsletter. With long form content, you don't have to be large and loud to be powerful. Long form content whispers and the right people lean in. Frankly, this just never gets old. All of this to say, I freaking love long form content, and you should too, because you have all sorts of creative projects, whether they are books, podcasts, articles, blogs, newsletters, videos, films, and who knows what else. Now is the perfect time to double down on your medium of choice. The world is hungry for truth tellers, visionaries, way showers, trailblazers, and amplifiers of all things good about life on planet Earth. And of course, we all need a good laugh. Plus, AI slop has created a real mess. So human-made, original ideas have never been more in demand. Your unique point of view is more valuable than ever. Here's why long-form content matters. Number one, it builds your body of work. This is a key tenet of my business coaching philosophy. A body of work is powerful because this is what you're known for. Who would Brene Brown be without her books? Or Oprah Winfrey without her talk show and then her network? Or Shonda Rhymes with Grey's Anatomy Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder in Bridgerton. As an aside, did you watch Shonda Land's The Residence? If not, get yourself over to Netflix right away. Think of any of your favorite people, and they probably became a favorite because of their long-form content. Number two, long-form content creates compounding opportunities. While you're out there making things, your next podcast guest, media mention, or 10K client sees your work and seems to come from nowhere. Number three, making long-form content is fun. For real, for real. There's joy in letting yourself love what you love and create something from it. You get to go deep, you get to stretch out, you get to tell the whole story, you get to let your brilliance breathe. And number four, there's leverage you create with your long-form work because you can break it into shorter pieces and repurpose it everywhere from TikTok to Pinterest to LinkedIn to YouTube. The possibilities are endless. While short form content might catch their attention, long form content changes their mind and makes them into a raving fan. So ask yourself, what's your long-form content game? What's your platform of choice? What would happen if you went all in on that right now? If you've been sitting on an idea that's perfect for long form, now's the time to create it. Or if you've already got a lot of long form content out in the wild, it's time to leverage it, repackage it, make new connections with it. If all this sounds like loads of fun, watch this space for more information about my long form content group program that will begin in the new year. You can DM me on Instagram for all the details. And if you're enjoying the show, leave a five star rating and review and share with a friend who's got a message worth hearing. Thank you for listening, and remember, you are the magic.